When my son was in elementary school and high school, I would pick him up and drive him home. A boring daily drive from Pearl Harbor to Kahalu`u.

I invented a game to keep him engaged, strengthen his vocabulary and have fun on the long drive.

Most Hawai`i license plates have 3 letters and 3 numbers. The letters range from AAA to (currently) S**, commercial vehicles letters start with T, and are reversed with the numbers. ### T**

The game is: we alternate selecting a license plate, saying the letters, and it is up to the other person to construct a cogent phrase, example:

Me: JTJ
Him: Jack Tumbled Jill

Then it is the selector's turn to try and come up with something better.
Me: Just try juice.

He won that round.

We learned early on to ignore plates with Z or X, because of limited word choices.

We have seen older plates going back to F**, H** plates from the Big Island, L** plates from Lanai, M** plates from Maui, which are more rare on Oahu, and more fun. He's all grown up now (22 yo) and we still play it.

I still remember my plate from 1981: BCX 068, I think they still had the Kamehameha head back then.

Lately I have seen Hawai`i plates starting with Z, I have no idea from where or why.